Mandatory Health Class
by xSimpleSoul
Summary: Beca's plans for a smooth and easy semester are seemingly trashed when Jesse Swanson decides to come in late on the first day of health class and sit next to her. He's irritating with his juice pouch diet and stupid movie obsession, but Beca soon figures she should probably learn how to deal with the nerd if she's going to be spending the last half of senior year with him. [AU]
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect, or any of the movies mentioned (Old Yeller, 1957)**

* * *

She truly felt like an idiot for choosing to take health class her senior year. It's not that Beca was avoiding it, in fact, she doesn't actually care about the class. It was the fact that seeing that stupid boy with that boyish grin everyday for a semester was almost unbearable to think about.

_Almost._

It was the third of January, and the clock read 15 minutes before 8:00. In true Beca fashion, she came into the unfamiliar classroom as the first to arrive. She never liked hanging out in the halls before class begun in the mornings. For a crowded school, Beca mostly liked to keep to herself to drown in her music, so she opted to just stick herself in an empty classroom that she liked before school started. It became habit once her best friend graduated two years earlier.

Beca stands in the front of the room, pondering where to sit. There were three sections of desks, each with four rows consisting of two tables. The desk she chooses is to the right side of the room, the row right before the last. She pulls out her phone, then a pair of ear buds, and leans back into her chair until it was touching the desk behind her. She pulls her feet out to prop onto the desk in front of her (Hey, it's not like there was a teacher— or anybody— around to tell her to take her fee). The ear buds are in her ears and her fingers begin to twitch for her mouse to tweak the small error in her current mix as the first couple students begin to compile and gather around the desks on the left side of the room, near the windows. Then comes a nervous group of freshmen girls, and they all stare at Beca as if approaching her would cause her to bite someones limbs off, before taking the seats in the row in front of her tentatively. Finally the teacher comes in and Beca immediately tucks her feet under her desk and placing all four legs if her chair flat on the ground. A couple more freshmen enter the room and occupy random seats, none of which are next to her. She takes her ear buds out as the final bell rings, the seat next to her still empty. The loud-speaker sounds and good 'ol Pat the attendance lady leads the school in the pledge of allegiance, then promptly welcomes the students after a long two weeks of winter break before telling them to have a great day and signing off.

"Welcome to your first day of health class, students. My name is Mrs. Keener—"

Some guy knocks on the door that Mrs. Keener had just shut, and once she opens it, he stumbles in. He shakes his head clear of any spare melting snow droplets, and he's out of breath (probably from running through the halls). The knees of his jeans were wet (probably because he tripped in a puddle on his way over here) and his hands are wiping the back of his jeans. Beca lets out a quiet snort at his appearance and the scene he was causing.

Beca suddenly realizes who this guy is, and her soft chuckles come to a halt. It was _that_ boy.

The boy walks in as Mrs. Keener was giving her traditional welcome to health class speech, and she looks over at him, clearly irritated.

"Do you have a pass?"

He shakes his head apologetically. More droplets fall out of his hair.

"Well, it's the first day of the semester, so I suppose I can let one tardy slide. Take a seat. I was just about to announce to the class that where you sit, is the seat you will be assigned for the next semester. Choose wisely." She narrows his eyes at him while the class watches where his own wander off to. He tries not to take too much time choosing which of the three seats he could take.

There was the group of the (not-so) nervous freshmen girls in front of Beca who suddenly ogled at his appearance, (not-so) subtly raising their eyebrows to the empty seat in their area. There was a seat in the front, next to a guy with a bush of brown hair atop his head and a magicians cape, someone Jesse came to recognize as Benji from their various classes together. Then there was that empty seat. Next to _her_.

"Well, we haven't got all day."

Jesse feels the blood rush to his cheeks, gives a small shrug, and casually walks over to the empty seat next to the girl, setting his backpack on the floor next to him. He can hear the collective sighs of disappointment in the rows in front of him and softly laughs before turning his head to the girl next to him. Her head is facing the front, her hair brushed to the side so that he couldn't see her face. He simply grins and directs his attention to the teacher in front of the room.

Beca's trying to avoid his gaze and silently curses him for choosing the seat next to her when he had the opportunity to choose the giggling freshmen or the magician. But of course he chooses to sit next to her for an entire semester.

Of course.

Her thoughts drift off to some place out of the class room, not noticing the slight nudge she feels at her side. He jabs his elbow slightly harder into her side again, catching Beca by surprise. She pushes the hair out of her face and tilts her head up to glare at his grinning face. He hands her the paper Mrs. Keener passed out, and she takes it before quickly turning her head away from him to read the thing. She feels his stare burning into the side of her head, but she ignores it and chooses to read the paper instead. Her eyes wander over the class syllabus and lands on the 5th bullet point, widening at the sight of it. She opens her mouth to ask Mrs. Keener about it, but a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl sitting right in the middle of the room, beats her to it.

"Mrs. Keener, so, like," She smacks her gum loudly, "it says 'baby project', and like, is that the thing where you take care of the eggs, for like, two weeks?" Beca watches as the girl obnoxiously begins to blow a bubble, then proceeds to pop it inside her mouth. She takes the chance to glimpse over at the boy, whose facial expression was a mix of confusion and curiosity.

The teacher smirks. "Actually, the school finally got the funding to get actual fake babies to use. We'll be using them this semester onward." She pauses for the class to react. Many of the students groan, others start raising their hands to ask questions, and some are frozen in their seats, such as the boy next to her. She simply rolls her eyes and all that runs through her mind is, 'why didn't I take this class earlier?'.

"For how long will it be?"

"Who the hell decided to do _that_?"

"Will we be having partners?"

"Why are you so cruel?"

"Please, calm down. It's the first day of the new semester and some of you already hate me." She groans, causing the class' riots to die down. "It'll only be for one week opposed to two weeks with the eggs. And yes, you will get partners. We have plenty of time until this project, though."

Now Beca _really_ wishes she had taken this class earlier.

Mrs. Keener suddenly dives into the syllabus, talking about each subject briefly. Beca learns that the first subject they'll be going over is community building. Lovely.

Squinting at the clock, Beca realizes that they still have forty-five minutes of class left, and she sighs. Finally, the teacher remembers to take attendance and whips out her clipboard.

"Rebeca Mitchell"

She raises her hand slightly and feels the boy push upwards on her elbow, straightening her arm all the way. She looks at him, startled and a bit irritated, before talking.

"I go by Beca." She informs Mrs. Keener (and the class), and the middle-aged woman nods and smiles. She waits until she looks away before smacking the guy in the shoulder, her lips pursed together as he lets out a yelp. A few set of eyes briefly look over at them, and Beca turns away from him with a satisfied smirk playing on her lips.

"Jesse Swanson"

His hand shoots up into the air and the girls in front of him start ogling him some more, and he begins to feel uncomfortable so he sets his hand down. Beca notices and bites down onto her lower lip to keep from laughing.

Mrs. Keener finishes up roll and announces a game they were about to play. It was one of those 'getting to know everybody' games that teachers always made students play at the beginning of the year or semester, no matter what grade you were in. There was simply no escape to these games.

Apparently, this game isn't actually a game. All they actually do is state facts about themselves in a circle for the rest of the period. Through this 'game', Beca learns that the magician really likes close up magic (she actually had couldn't tell), a girl named Jessica really likes horses, and Jesse has a pet corgi named Spike (from Old Yeller, he adds). She shares that she likes music, and someone asks what kind, but she just shrugs her shoulders because she likes anything that had a good beat. And finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the bell rings so she quickly shuffles her things together and scurries out out of the classroom. It's like she can finally breathe again.

But then, she hears his voice again and blinks, her strides getting faster as she tries her best to get to her class as quickly as possible.

"Hey! I know you!"

"No you don't." She rolls her eyes because, well, of course he does. They were just in the same class together, sitting next to each other actually.

"Yeah, I do! So," She wills her legs to walk faster, and they oblige. Why can't he leave her alone?

"Which class do you have next?" She sees her destination coming closer and closer and breathes a sigh of relief.

"American Government. 313." She says, arriving closer and closer to the classroom. She sees his face fall a little because the class is coming nearer and nearer, but he instantly brightens up.

"Oh, I have psychology. See you later, or tomorrow, or something." He scratches the back of his neck before he takes his first step down the flight of stairs that leads to the second floor.

Beca can't resist. "Yeah, don't wanna be late, you know, again." He whips his head around and grins, almost tripping down the stairs in the process. She lets out a quiet chuckle before entering the classroom.

* * *

"Ay! Flatbutt!" Fat Amy waves her down in the cafeteria, her face full of food. A laugh escapes Beca's mouth as she walks over to the Australian and sits across from her. The blonde offers her a slice of pizza, but she declines before digging into her own bag to find the wrap and apple she packed for the day.

"What's up? How was health class? Y'know, if it were up to me, I'd make sure to show everyone a video of dingoes in heat. That's what they did in Tasmania." She tells the brunette. Beca's eyebrows are raised and she opens her mouth to reply when Stacie comes over and sits next to Amy. The brunette is groaning as she's taking out her nile file from the depths of her bag.

"Ugh, that Benji kid kept pulling magic tricks in psychology, it was the worst. A dove popped out of nowhere and almost took a shit on me. Ms. Pinches didn't even do anything. She was actually _encouraging_ him."

Beca and Amy snort a little as Stacie crossed her arms. "It's not funny. So, what's new? Any new transfers I should be aware of?" Stacie winks and Beca shoots back a face of disgust.

"No, Stacie. Not that I know of."

"There's a new guy who works at the library. Except, he had no teeth.." Fat Amy pauses to take a bite of her pizza, "Beca here was about to tell me about her health class."

"There's not much to talk about. Well, that for that stupid baby project, instead of eggs this year we're using actual fake babies. I seriously should have taken that class earlier."

Fat Amy makes a face and chews thoughtfully into her pizza. "Aw man, that sucks, flatbutt. I accidentally cooked my children.. But I passed!" She triumphantly shakes her fist in the air.

"Ew. I accidentally crushed mine while I was.. busy enjoying some festivities.. with this one college guy. I ended up failing" Stacie sighs at the memory, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. Beca scrunches her nose in disgust over her friend. Despite being one of the smartest people in the state, Stacie wasn't a saint. Her slut status seemed to be more popular than her brains in town.

"Hey! Beca! Be-caw!"

Oh no. Not again.

Stacie turns her head to find the source of the noise, a smirk slowly creeping on her face. "Isn't that Jesse Swanson? He's in my psych class. I wouldn't mind climb—" She shuts her mouth once he approaches, then turns to Fat Amy. "Amy, will you come with me to get my lunch? It's in my car." She waits for Amy to disagree, but surprisingly she gets up and follows the brunette. "We'll be right back, shawshank!" She assures Beca, then proceeds to leave the two alone.

_Those bitches._

"Hi!" He smiles, takes a seat next to her, and pulls out a sandwich from his backpack. Beca just stares at him for awhile, utterly confused at why he was even bothering on talking to her when she refused to make eye contact, and well, any form of interaction, with him during class.

"Uh, hey?" Beca takes a slow bite into her apple, the noise of the fruit's skin cracking as she rips it between her teeth being the only sound that's made.

Doesn't he have any friends to eat with?

"Dude, I don't mean to sound like I don't want you here or anything, but uh, why are you here?" She finally asks after a few minutes of silence between them, the only noise coming from the background conversations throughout the cafeteria.

His eyes come up from the juice pouch he's holding to meet hers. Truthfully, he has no idea how to answer her question. He's curious to know her, and seeing her in the cafeteria (where he's never seen her eat in) he went straight to her, no actual reasoning behind it.

He tries to not take too much time devising up an answer. "Hmm, well, I thought, hey, there's my seat buddy Beca Mitchell, and, like this morning, the seat next to you was empty, so of course I had to go seize the opportunity and take it. It's only fitting that I, your seat buddy, stick by your side. It's destiny, Beca."

She watches him closely, trying not to break into a smile at his more than childlike answer. "You're a weirdo."

She's expecting him to reply, but he doesn't, so she looks at what's distracting him when she almost chokes on her apple. She notices that he's pulling off the crusts of his sandwich when she glances at the contents inside of it, and suddenly she's biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

"Peanut butter and jelly? _Crustless_?" She can't help it; her laughs spill out of her mouth and she's fighting to not snort.

Jesse looks half embarrassed, half lost puppy. "PB&J is a classic! Don't deny it! And crusts... well they just suck." The lost puppy look fails to disappear off his face, and she's still in the midst of laughing, but eventually he joins her.

Once their laughs die down, he speaks up again. "I _do_ know you. I sang to you. On the first day of school of freshmen year. Then again in sophomore year, and last year.. And then this year! I remember because you're always in a taxi." His grin is wider than it should be and she bites her cheek again. Of course she remembers this guy, he sings to her every year on the first day of school before seemingly disappearing for the rest of the school year. She sees him sometimes out and about in the hallways, but they've never actually talked to each other or had classes together, which Beca was grateful for. And it's weird how he somehow finds her every year, in that taxi, and sings the same song without ever finding out her name.

"So, what's your deal? Are you one of those dark and mysterious girls, and she takes off her glasses and that amazingly scary ear spike and you realize that she was beautiful the whole time?"

"I don't wear glasses." She deadpans.

"You're halfway there."

She gives him a long look and in response, Jesse just shrugs and smiles smugly. Her ringtone blares out of the vibrating phone on the table, startling both Beca and Jesse. She checks the caller I.D. and shoots Jesse an apologetic look.

"Just, uh, um.." She slides her finger across the screen and the pixels slowly disappear to reveal a set of blue eyes beaming through the screen.

"Hey Beca! Do you have time for this? Where's Amy and Stacie?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's lunch—"

"Who's that?" Chloe asks, her face suddenly up closer to the screen, leaving Beca a nice view of her nose. She turns and sees Jesse trying to sneak a peek over at the screen, but she immediately turns the phone away from him.

"I should probably get going then, Beca. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." The boy shuffles his stuff back into his backpack then stands up to leave.

"Oh, and yeah, I am a weirdo. And so are you. It's a good thing we're gonna be best friends—"

"Woah there buddy, that title's already taken." Chloe chirps from inside the screen, interrupting Jesse. It doesn't seem like he hears though, because he continues to talk.

"—and or lovers!" He finishes over his shoulder as he whooshes past behind her, allowing Chloe to see the boy one more time.

"Please don't say lovers." Beca immediately shoots back, but it's too late. He's gone and she returns her eyes back to her phone, where Chloe was smiling widely at their little exchange.

"Ooh, Beca! Who was that? That was really adorable, plus, he's cute! And you'll be future lovers." The redhead winks, causing Beca to groan. She plugs in her earbuds to avoid further embarrassment from Chloe that could be heard publicly.

"_Don't_ say lovers, Chloe. And how would you know? You barely saw the guy."

"Okay, fine. Stacie texted me. I can't believe after four years, Jesse Swanson finally mustered up the guts to actually talk to you! He's so adorable, Beca. You'd be such a cute couple! Future lovers!" Chloe rambles, making sure to draw out the 'o' in that last word as Beca rolls her eyes.

"Chloe, let's not talk about this right now. Or, ever. And stop saying that."

"Aww, but Beca! You know—"

"Did you hear that, Chlo? I think the bell just rang. I'm gonna head to class. Bye!" She wiggles her fingers in front of the camera, flashes a fake smile, and presses the 'end call' button before Chloe could protest.

* * *

**A/N-**

Hi everyone! This will be a short fic, probably about 10 chapters. The idea literally came out of nowhere and it wouldn't leave so this happened.

First Pitch Perfect story, let me know what you think :) Hope you enjoyed!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect, or any of the movies mentioned (Jaws, 1975. E.T., 1982. The Breakfast Club, 1985. Star Wars, 1977. Rocky, 1976)**

* * *

It's the second day of the week and true to his word, Jesse does indeed see Beca. This time, he's not late and happily sitting in his seat as she comes into the room. He scoots his chair in a little bit to allow her some room to squeeze into the desk next to him.

"Good morning, Beca!" He says all too enthusiastically. She grumbles something too hard to understand, but Jesse decides to not push her buttons because clearly she does not seem like a morning person. He reaches into his bag and pulls out two juice pouches, one for him and the other for the brunette next to him. He nudges her slightly and offers her the juice pouch, only receiving a very curious gaze at him.

"It's not poisonous."

She scoffs and snatches the pouch from out of his hand and tries to poke the sharp end of the straw into the hole, only to have it bend a little and thus making it about a thousand times harder to push it through.

_Real smooth, Beca._

It's all too painful for him to watch, so he takes the pouch from her grip and, as if by magic, pushes the straw through the hole in one swift motion.

Beca looks dumbfounded. "I— Thanks." She mutters, taking the pouch back. "What's with the juice pouches?"

"A juice pouch a day keeps the doctor away." Jesse says in all seriousness. "But really, juice pouches work just as effectively as coffee. Plus, they're cheaper and easier to carry around. For me, at least."

"Oh?" She tries her best to look genuinely affected by his words, and it seems to work because he keeps on talking. He's talking about which flavors work best for him and why they're 'oh, so amazing' until the bell rings and Mrs. Keener walks in. The usual morning announcements are read before Mrs. Keener hands out a paper to each person, then proceeds to explain the assignment out loud.

"You will have a partner who you do not know and you two will interview each other using these questions until about 15 minutes before class is over. You will then share some facts about each other in about a minimum of one minute in front of the class. Community bonding is our goal here, class! I will be pairing everyone up." The final sentence sends the class groaning before she quickly begins to pair everyone up. The two are waiting to be paired up, and it seems as if Mrs. Keener has forgotten about them because she goes back to her desk and pulls out a book.

Jesse turns to Beca and smirks. "Howdy, partner."

"What."

"So, first question: Name?"

She rolls her eyes. He simply shrugs and writes her name down.

"Oh, it's with one 'c'." She quickly reminds him and he erases it.

"Jesse with two s', no 'i'." She scribbles his name down and they look at the next question.

"Were you named after anyone?"

"Rebecca West."

Jesse gives her a confused look before she continues. "She's some liberal, feminist who put her beliefs in her works, or something. My dad's an English junkie and somehow convinced my mom to name me after her, except with one 'c'." She shrugs. He nods and scribbles the name down, and when he's done she's looking at him, waiting for his answer.

"My grandpa's middle name is Jesse and that's about it."  
She glances down at the next question and then at the boy grinning at her, her eyebrows scrunched together.

"So your dad's an English junkie? What does he do? What about your mom?"

"He teaches comparative literature at Barden University. My mom's a flight attendant."

"Seriously? I sent an application over there! I'm still waiting, though. Where do you plan on going to college?" He asks off-handedly, earning only a bewildered look from Beca.

"Hold up there, Swanson. What do your parents do?" She points at the question on the piece of paper, steering his attention away from the latter question.

"My mom's a substitute teacher slash stay at home wife. Dad's a part-time motivational speaker, part-time gymnastics coach."

"Gymnastics coach? Does this mean you're some secret star gymnast training for the Olympics?"

"Yup. My dad lives his dream vicariously through me, but hey, if it means I get to have these," He pats his flexing bicep and gives a sly smirk, "I'm kidding."

"You're an idiot."

She laughs and smacks his forearm.

He clears his throat at the awkward silence that suddenly blankets them. "Okaaay, next question."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"I have two older brothers and a younger sister. And you?"

Beca's shoulders are hunched in her seat and she props an elbow onto the desk, her chin resting on her palm, wondering what she should say. She didn't actually like referring to Brenna as her sister, just as 'the daughter that came with the she-monster' when they joined her dad's family. It's not that she didn't like Brenna, it was just the thought that she was a part of her family that she didn't like. Then there was Chloe, who was Brenna's step-sister, but mentioning her would complicate things.

What he doesn't know won't hurt, right?

"I'm an only child."

He raises an eyebrow at her hesitation, but doesn't bother to ask any further on the subject. They easily transition into the next series of questions.

"Favorite color?"

"Red."

"Blue. Your favorite class?"

"My favorite class is definitely this one."

"You've been here for two days." She shoots back, eyeing him warily.

"It's my favorite because, obviously, I get to spend my mornings with the ball of sunshine that is Beca Mitchell." Despite his eyebrow wiggle and his mocking comment, his smile is genuine and Beca can't help but scoff at his forwardness.

"Don't refer to me as a ball of sunshine. Favorite movie?"

He puts his arms up in surrender and continues, "okay, okay. So, my favorite movie? Man, how do you expect me to answer this?" And suddenly, he's launched himself into a full blown speech about movies, and he seems so genuinely passionate about this subject that Beca doesn't know what to do or say to make him stop. He's spewing out little facts about some of his favorite movies while Beca doodles and nods her head as she's beginning to lose interest around 5 minutes in. He continues to blabber for about five more minutes before fixating his eyes on the very bored girl next to him.

"And.. Oh, I'm sorry, am I talking too much?" A sheepish smile appears on his face. "It's just that, I want to score movies when I grow up. Bring people to tears, you know, blow their minds. I feel like only music can do that." He turns to look at her.

And suddenly, Beca understands him and that stupidly long speech that he just gave. It's like her and her music; the way he is with his movies. She looks at him thoughtfully and he's looking back at her, and then they snap out of it and she turns her head back to the paper to clear out the awkward tension between them.

"So do you have a favorite movie or not, nerd?"

"I guess not. Asking me to choose a favorite movie is like asking a parent who their favorite kid is."

"But they always end up having a favorite; they just don't show it. So technically, that's not an excuse."

He groans, burying his head into the palms of his hands. "Okay then, so what's _your_ favorite movie?"

"That's easy. I don't have one."

"What, do you not like movies or something? Like, any movies?"

Beca simply looks innocently at her juice pouch before taking a sip out of it. She swears she sees his eyeballs fall out of their sockets and his jaw falling to the ground once she confirms his suspicions. It's like he's struggling to find his voice because he doesn't know what to say for a full three minutes except for the few stutters that leaves his mouth.

"Do you need some water or something.." She asks as she drums her fingertips against the tabletop.

He shakes his head and sucks all the juice out of the pouch before speaking, "I— just. I— what? What the hell is wrong with you? How can you not like movies? Not liking movies is like not liking puppies!" He sputters, his eyes still wide in shock over this revelation. She can't help the laughs that come out of her mouth and bites the end of her straw.

"They're fine! I just get bored and never make it to the end." She shrugs.

He's glaring at her now and he's shaking his head, refusing to believe what he was hearing. "The endings are the best part!"

"They're predictable," She sweeps a hand through her hair and he's still looking at her like she's grown a second head, "like, the guy gets the girl, the kid sees dead people, and Darth Vader is Luke's father—"

"Oh, right. So you just happen to guess the biggest cinematic reveal in history?" He puts emphasis on 'history'.

She's slightly irritated by now, but she keeps the banter going. "Vader in German means father.. His name is literally Darth Father."

Jesse's slightly taken aback as he processes this new information. "Huh.. So you know German. Well, now I know why you don't like fun things."

She's even more irritated with this guy, so she plasters a fake, tight lipped smile.

"You need a movie education. You need a movication, and I'm gonna give it to you." He decides, ignoring her immediate refusal. "When's your free period? We can have them then."

"Nope." She shakes her head.

"I will not just sit here and let you," He gulps dramatically, "not like movies. This is serious, Beca Mitchell."

Shrugging, she finishes her juice pouch and gets up to toss it in the garbage bin.

* * *

Jesse and Beca are the last of the pairs to share their findings before the bell rings. He waves a goodbye and reminds her about their movication, even though she continues to ignore him and his constant nagging.

He's sitting in class, listening to the teacher talk about their upcoming projects that are due in a week, when he notices Stacie Conrad, the girl Beca was eating lunch with yesterday, blowing her newly painted nails and waving them around in the air. The smell reaches his nose and he scrunches it in disgust when suddenly he comes up with an idea.

He's got this goofy grin on his face when the teacher finishes up and lets the students go back to work on their projects, and that's when he decides to stroll over to the girl who was now applying another coat of polish. He clears his throat to get her attention, and immediately she looks up and smirks.

"Jesse Swanson, right?" She asks as she crosses a leg over her knee, a suspicious smile playing on her face.

He nods. "Yeah, so, I have this question—"

"I won't do your project for you, unless you've got a price on you, or you— Wait, does it have to do with Beca? 'Cause I got plenty of answers." She winks, and he's not quite sure what she means, so he nods again.

"Do you know when her free period is?"

Stacie's face drops a little once he asks her the question. "Oh." She sighs, tapping the pads of her fingers on her chin. "I'm pretty sure it's 5th period."

He smiles at the bored brunette, happy to know that they shared the same free period. "Thanks! Oh, and," She straightens up a little. "Do you know where she usually goes?"

"Usually, she just goes home but sometimes she stays in the library, on the top floor, since like, no one goes up there. Or, she goes outside on the roof in the third wing. That's where I usually look." She says, and suddenly she's smiling and looking at Jesse again and it makes him feel uncomfortable so he says his thanks again and sits back down.

* * *

Once Jesse gets the information he needs, he drives home for lunch to pick up a few DVDs, his laptop, and several other things then returns to school. Since fifth period comes after lunch on Tuesdays, he goes straight to the library to look for the girl he brought all his stuff for. He's not quite sure why he's so intrigued and invested with this girl, but he decides to just go with it. He breathes a sigh of relief once he finds her sitting at a table in the corner, ear buds stuck in her ears and her nose buried in a pile of papers.

"What's up weirdo." He whispers, poking her in the side. She's surprised to see him and takes out her ear buds as he simultaneously starts taking out the DVDs. She's not really sure how he knew where she was and tries to shove any thoughts about him being creepy down into the back of her mind, when suddenly she remembers how lunch went:

_"You have fifth period free, right?" Stacie asks as she sits down next to Beca, a french fry sticking out the corner of her mouth. Beca nods curiously, remembering Jesse's numerous attempts to know her free period._

_She sighs and looks Stacie dead in the eye. "Does Jesse have anything to do with this? Did he ask you?"_

_"What? No. I was just planning on skipping calculus today, we have a substitute. I'm thinking about going to the gym near BU_,_ wanna come?" The tall brunette shrugs and bats her eyes innocently._

_Beca immediately shakes her head, remembering the last time Stacie made her go to that place. All she did was watch as her friend casually flirt her way through the entire building, snagging a few guys' numbers in the process, as Beca followed her around for an hour straight. At one point, Stacie made her distract one guys' girlfriend in order to get his number, and in the end, the girl found out and, well, the couple got kicked out once she started screaming at Stacie, who played innocent the whole time. She did end up getting the guys' number, which was victory in Stacie's eyes._

_"That's okay, Stace. I think I'll pass and work on that history paper. Maybe next time."_

_The brunette shrugs, "You're missing out, Beca."_

_"That's fine by me."_

Beca silently curses her friend, then herself for actually believing her, and then looks at Jesse, who's taking out a blue laptop and setting it on table.

"What's this?"

"As much as I love hanging out with you in health class, and I do, I love it, like, more than life, I figured we could do other fun things outside of class. So, I brought some movies." He says excitedly and turns on his laptop. She begins to organize her stuff and is prepared to leave when she makes the mistake at looking at his puppy dog pout and eyes and she feels like smashing her head through a wall, but she rolls her eyes and stays and he triumphantly begins to list off his movies.

"Jaws, E.T., The Breakfast Club, Star Wars, and Rocky. They're the best scored and soundtracked movies of all time." He hands her another juice pouch and she takes it, this time she has no problem with the pouch and successfully pokes the straw through the hole.

"Can we do something else? We can relive my parents divorce. Visit a gynecologist." She takes an innocent sip of her juice pouch and he looks at her incredulously.

"Nope, we're starting your movication today. Right now. No ifs or buts."

She opens her mouth to refuse, "But—"

"No buts." He reminds her as he spreads the movies out on the table.

She sighs in defeat. "Alright, which one are we watching, nerd? You choose." He grins, covers his eyes, and chooses a random movie.

"E.T. You'll love this one." He assures, but she's not so sure and just goes with it. He offers her an ear bud and she inserts it into her ear as the movie starts playing.

Beca's not quite sure why she's letting him do all of this stuff for her. It's not common for her to let someone into her life so quickly (two days was a record), but it's Jesse Swanson, this weird dork who doesn't seem to want to do any harm. He's so open and friendly and irritating and so unlike Beca that it makes her almost curious and intrigued to know this guy. And oddly enough, her guard is down with this guy, and he seems so willing and persistent to get to know her, so she decides to let him, even if he is this annoying, rambling movie nerd. She'll be out of Boston and in L.A. in, hopefully, six months. She'll probably never see him again and that'll be the end of that.

But for now, she'll let him just stay there. Movications and all.

* * *

**A/N-**

Hey guys! Thanks for all the feedback! It literally makes my day reading your reviews!

Thanks to RealAsCanBe4682 for noticing the banner, haha. I had fun making it :p

And to anonymous, singing probably won't be a huge influence in the story since this is an AU, but I can tell you now that there will be a little bit of it, but it won't be added until far later into the story.

Also going to add that I'll probably be updating once a week. I like having several chapters written before publishing them, if that makes any sense.

Tell me your thoughts on this chapter!

Sidenote: Beca's a little OOC and I'm working on trying to reverse that, so bear with me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect, or any of the movies mentioned (Monty Python and The Holy Grail, 1975. Bridesmaids, 2011. Super Size Me, 2004. The Breakfast Club, 1985)**

* * *

It's two weeks into the new semester and Beca finds herself learning to deal with Jesse's annoying habits. She's just starting to get over the fact that he rambles whenever he's talking about something he's passionate about, like movies or compositions or juice pouches, and the fact that he likes to ambush her during her free period to continue her movications (that he insists they have daily, but sometimes she's busy or simply doesn't _feel_ like it, and he understands that, which is something Beca came to like about this boy). Even if he is irritating and kinda weird, she likes having him to keep her company during free period and awake during health class, which she finds odd since she likes to keep to herself.

Beca's not expecting what she sees when she gets home Friday afternoon. She's swinging her bag off her shoulder and pulling her socks off her feet when she looks in the mirror and sees a flicker of movement reflect back behind her. It can't be her mother (she's on a plane somewhere over Italy at the moment, probably serving drinks or a fancy dinner) and it can't be her dad, because he was probably at Barden in Georgia. She turns around to see someone slowly spinning around to face her in her black desk chair and she's suddenly reaching for her hairbrush to use as a weapon. Beca releases the brush as soon as she sees who it is and frowns.

"I've been," the girl pauses dramatically before her face breaks out into a grin, "expecting you."

"What the hell, Chloe!"

The redhead begins to giggle. "I'm sorry, I've always wanted to do that."

"Why are you here?" Beca asks, still frowning.

"Oh don't act like you don't want me here. You _love_ me." Chloe makes sure to put an emphasis on the 'love' before prancing over to the brunette to give her a tight hug. "It's a three-day weekend and I thought I'd crash with you. Plus, it means I have an excuse to not babysit Brenna. I love the kid, but I'm starting to hate how Sheila asks me to take care of the kid every time there's a holiday."

It was weird to think that Chloe and Beca shared a stepsister, but weren't actually related. It was even weirder to think that Beca and Chloe were friends prior to the situation, the situation in which Beca's dad met Chloe's now ex-stepmother at Chloe's sweet sixteen and they ended up dating, then getting married. Brenna, their shared stepsister, was the product of Sheila's first marriage. Even though Brenna was Chloe's ex-stepsister, Chloe referred to the six-year-old as her baby sister and loved her dearly and still contacted her ex-stepmother, while Beca preferred the opposite.

"Seriously though, why here?" Beca stares at the girl suspiciously.

"Am I not allowed to come visit my best friend for the weekend? This visit is out of pure love." She smiles cheekily, cocking her head to the side. Beca blinks slowly as she crosses her arms over her chest, a smirk on her face. It doesn't take long for Chloe to let out an exasperated sigh.

"Alright fine. It's time for an impromptu girls night. Like when we were younger, you know, bake cupcakes and watch movies and maybe we can go shopping in the morning. It'll be fun! And who knows when I'll be back in town." Chloe adds, knowing she might not refuse if she mentions that.

She knew there was no point in arguing with the ginger. She knew that she had settled on that idea way before she even came to her house. She knew there was no moving her best friend when she had her 'brilliant' ideas.

All she mutters is a 'fine', and Chloe's squealing and grabbing her car keys in one hand and Beca's hand in the other.

* * *

Jesse's driving home from a successful day at school (he got Beca to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail during lunch _and _free period, plus he thinks she actually _enjoyed_ it, which was a huge accomplishment for him) when he sees Benji, the magician kid he's known since the beginning of high school, walking away from a group of kids who appeared to be throwing various items at him. He sees him turn around slightly, his mouth open to say something, but a look flashes on his face and he closes it again, his head facing the ground. Jesse can't help but feel sorry for the guy; he's picked on everyday for doing something he loves and is proud of, and, well, it sucks.

And it's sort of an impulse for Jesse stop next to the sidewalk a few yards away. He pops his head out of the window and he gestures for the boy to get in, but the boy looks uncertain and a little bewildered.

"Hey, Benji! It's Jesse Swanson." He pauses to look at the boy's reaction before continuing. "We have health and psych together. Want a ride?" He offers, hoping to not scare him away.

Benji shakes his head just as a ball of paper hits his cheek.

"No, it's okay. Thanks, though."

"You sure?"

It looks as if Benji's taking a step towards his car when he stops himself and turns straight on. "No, really, it's fine. I live really close from here." Jesse stares at for what seems like a long time before shifting the gear to 'drive' and leaving the guy, who was still being pelted by paper objects.

Once he arrives home a few minutes later, he drops his things onto the couch and feels his stomach rumbling so he goes straight to the kitchen.

He's opening the fridge when his little sister comes bounding down the stairs. "There's nothing in there. Mom wants us to go shopping." Maddie shrugs, handing him two hundred dollar bills and a list of grocery items.

"Why can't she go?" All he really wanted to do was watch a movie and take a nap, so he's kinda annoyed at the fact that his mother put him on grocery duty this week.

She rolls her eyes all the while pulling her hair into a pony tail. "She's at the spa with her gal pals. She told me I can come with, you know, to make sure you don't only buy junk food crap."

He's kind of offended at her words because, well, popcorn, pizza bagels, and Froot Loops were _not_ crap. "Hey, you know you love Froot Loops just as much as I do. Let's go, then." The 8th grader scoffs and follows him out the door.

* * *

Chloe doesn't mention to Beca that they had to pick up Aubrey on the way, and once she realizes where they're heading to she groans.

"Alright, Aubrey's coming along too. She has some of my stuff." Chloe says, taking her eyes off the road for a second to see Beca's expression. Aubrey and Chloe met their freshmen year of college when they joined the Barden Bellas, an a cappella group. Since then, the two have stuck by each other through everything in college (Chloe even puts up with Aubrey's projectile vomit problem, which Beca gives props to). Beca and Aubrey, however, don't seem to get along, thus causing problems when they're put together in one room. Chloe thinks making plans with both of them will make them be friends, but it never seems to go that way.

She grimaces at the fact that Aubrey is going to be at her house for the whole night. "Oh come on, Becs. Don't make that face! We're all going to have fun!" Chloe tries with her best friend. She knows Beca just loves to bug the older girl, and in turn she likes to act more controlling than usual. It was cat-and-mouse with them.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Can you try not to start anything with her this time? For me?" They're at a red light when Chloe juts out her lower lip and makes her blue eyes extra big, making Beca laugh.

The puppy eyes don't work however, because once they pick up Aubrey and are at the store, they start bickering.

She doesn't know why Chloe puts her in charge of choosing the cupcake wrappers when Aubrey keeps complaining about her choices and throwing them back onto the shelves. Apparently bats, tinsel, and party hats aren't pleasing to the eye.

"Beca, no. This isn't going to match anything. And once again, it's not Halloween." Aubrey snaps, picking up the package of plain black cupcake wrappers and throwing it back on the shelves.

Her eyes roll back into her head. "You know what, Aubrey? Maybe you should choose."

"Actually, Aubrey, black matches just about everything!" Chloe says, hoping to smooth the blonde out.

"No, it's fine, Chlo. I'm going to pick out a pizza. Any special requests?" The brunette asks, particularly aiming at Aubrey (because she's obviously the pickiest person there) and surprisingly the blonde shakes her head, but opens her mouth.

"Nothing with olives. I'm allergic." Beca nods and strolls out of the aisle, happily smiling at herself at her successful attempt to get under the older girl's skin. She's in the frozen food section, looking for a pizza that looked seemingly okay to eat on the box, when she hears a voice come from her left.

"Jesse, mom said _no_." Maddie complains as she pushes the shopping cart toward her brother to the freezer section. He picks out a box of blueberry waffles and heads straight to the pizza bagels. He's not looking when he knocks his forearm against a small brunette's shoulder.

"Whoops, sorry there!" He quickly apologizes, pausing to look at the girl.

Hey, wasn't Beca wearing that exact same sweater toda— "You should probably watch where you're going next time, nerd." He's looking at an amused Beca Mitchell, casually standing in the middle of the aisle.

He's grinning now. "Maybe you shouldn't stand in the middle of the aisle. You're kinda blocking me from getting to the pizza bagels, Beca."

"Pizza bagels? Seriously?"

Suddenly his sister catches up behind him. "Jesse, mom said _no_." She repeats, an annoyed expression on her face.

Beca looks at the girl behind him and nods to her, "looks like you aren't even allowed to have pizza bagels, anyways."

He turns to glare at his little sister before turning back to face Beca. "This is my little sister, Madison."

"Maddie." She corrects before smiling at the other brunette. "And you are..?"

"I'm Beca. Nice to meet you, Maddie." She replies with a curt nod.

Jesse clears his throat. "What brings you to the freezer section of Food S'mart on this lovely Friday evening?"

She's in the midst of examining which toppings she should choose when she replies by pointing to the shelves of pizzas.

"Ah, well if you're having a hard time choosing which one to get, I suggest the spinach, mushroom, and garlic pizza. It's squisito." He says, mimicking a bad Italian accent. She snickers when she sees Maddie roll her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, my brother's kind of an idiot. But he's right about the pizza, it's delicious."

"Oh, I know. Everyday I'm forced to suffer through his idiocy." She muses, reaching for the pizza they suggested inside the freezer. She tucks the box under the crook of her arm.

He's staring at the two brunettes incredulously. "I'd rather not have to listen to this. I'm getting my pizza bagels. See you on Monday, Beca." He says heading straight to the end of the aisle where his precious pizza bagels were.

"Thanks for the pizza suggestion!" She calls out, amused over this weird addiction he has with children's foods, and turns to go back to find Chloe and Aubrey. She reaches the end of the aisle when they suddenly appear from the corner, Chloe's face beet red with a smile plastered on it.

"No, Chloe." Beca sighs before the redhead could say anything.

"But _Be-ca_!"

She turns to Aubrey, whose watching Chloe with a bemused glint in her eyes. "She started turning red when she saw you talking to that guy."

Beca groans. "Just drop it, Chloe. He's just a," she ponders what word to use because, well, friend didn't quite roll off her tongue easily. She's pretty sure they're past the 'acquaintance' stage, though.

"Lover." Chloe blurts, finishing her sentence for her. There's a large, satisfied grin on her face and a confused one on Aubrey's.

"Will you stop with that word!" Beca snaps and rolls her eyes, dropping the pizza box into the cart. "It's spinach, mushroom, and garlic. Does that sound okay?"

The three divide the costs and head back to Beca's.

"You know, I'm pretty sure dinner comes before dessert." Aubrey says as she wipes icing off her hand, meanwhile Chloe's swiping at the sweet topping with the tip of her tongue on her own fingers, like a cat.

Beca rolls her eyes. "Who cares." She's staring proudly at the work of art that are her cupcakes, each messily iced and sprinkled. The dark brown, almost green, icing she concocted by mixing all of the colors together really popped out in the pink wrappers that Aubrey had chosen, and they certainly stood out against her own friends' (Aubrey's iced and decorated precisely, while Chloe's were a tad less perfect, but nonetheless pretty and pink). Chloe brings out the pizza they've been waiting for and slices it into eight equal slices. They each grab a slice and sigh at the flavors that explode into their mouths. The three sit in cozy silence as Chloe flips through the endless selection of movies On Demand, occasionally suggesting a movie that interests her. Generally, Aubrey agrees and Beca disagrees, but Chloe seems to see this coming and finally chooses a movie, knowing well that none of them would refuse (well, except maybe Beca). She suddenly pauses the movie as the beginning scene begins to roll, turning to Aubrey.

"Oh, the popcorn! Could you pop some, Aubrey?" She asks, and the blonde gets up wordlessly to do what she was told. "So, do you have anything to tell me? You know, about Jesse?" She bats her eyes, only earning a grumble from Beca.

"Chlo, how many times do I have to tell you? There's literally nothing to say, anyways."

"Come on now, Beca. He ate lunch with you! _And_ he called you his lover!"

"That doesn't mean anything. And stop saying that word." She cringes, taking a bite of the remaining pizza crust.

Chloe stares at her with a soft pout.

"Seriously, Chloe? Jesse's this annoying guy who happened to sit next to me during health, and now that's his assigned seat for the rest of the semester. That's it."

"That's not what Stacie says! She says that you spend free period and sometimes even lunch with him. There's gotta be more to the story than that."

Aubrey walks in, a bowl of popcorn in her hands. "What story?"

"Like I said, he's just this guy who loves to annoy the shit out of me by making me watch stupid movies with him during free period, and _sometimes_ even lunch."

"Sounds intimate." Aubrey pipes, and Beca snorts in disgust.

"That sounds adorable. Ugh, just watch, you're going to end up together by the end of the year. Anyways, so Aubrey, in case you didn't know, you know that guy in the store, who was like, totally flirting with Beca, I mean I could tell even miles away," Chloe starts her rambles as Aubrey nods. Beca laughs to herself, because, seriously? They were talking about pizza bagels. "So, on the first day of her freshmen year, we're in a taxi and I get out first while Beca's paying the driver, when Jesse, the guy, begins to sing Kansas to her in his parents car, and he's like, totally adorable with his air guitar and ugh, it's so cute! Then the next year, it's so weird because it happens again. And apparently it happened these last two years too, that's what Beca says, anyways. It's like fate." She claps happily before grabbing a handful of popcorn and stuffing one by one into her mouth.

"That's kinda weird, if I'm going to be honest here." Aubrey says.

"Ha! Thank you, Aubrey. Good to know that Chloe here is slightly delusional with her love fantasies concerning me and Jesse. She's been obsessed with coupling us together like we're two fictional characters in some love story. Me even acknowledging him fulfills her weird fantasies."

The redhead briefly pinches Beca's elbow, which causes the brunette to jerk it into Chloe's side.

"But, it's kinda cute too." The blonde admits, wiping the victorious grin off Beca's face.

"So, what's this movie about?" Beca asks, ready to completely erase the subject from her friends' minds.

"Uh, what do you think? It's called _Bridesmaids_."

And with that, Beca spends the rest of her night squished next to Chloe on the couch, and she admits to liking it (only the parts when that girl who looked scarily like Fat Amy was on the screen, though. It actually made her day). But somehow, Beca seems to admit, from the darkest depths of that heart of hers, that watching a movie without Jesse's constant facts was strangely discomforting.

* * *

When they're back at school on Tuesday, Beca can't help but take a glimpse at Jesse's food log during lunch. They started the nutrition unit last week, and since then they've watched 'Super Size Me' (which makes Beca never want to step inside another fast food joint. Ever.), kept track of their food logs, and learned about all the wonderful, artificial crap they put in her favorite foods. She reads, in his unbelievably neat handwriting, the list of food items and holds in a snicker. She's not surprised at the copious amounts of 'juice pouch' written on the list, or the invasion of pizza bagels from the weekend.

He sees her staring at his paper and laughs. "What?"

She immediately snaps her eyes to the boy staring at her, feeling a faint blush creep onto her cheeks. "Uh," she briefly takes a sip of her juice pouch (supplied by the one and only Jesse Swanson), "I'm surprised you don't have peanut butter and jelly sandwich written on there." She stares pointedly at the log, waiting for Jesse to reply. He simply shrugs.

"Ran out of jelly. So, how was the pizza? Was it not as magnificent as I suggested it to be?" He wiggles his eyebrows, making her scoff.

"I've had better."

He watches as she takes out a tray of sushi from the inside of her bag and sets it on the table, holding in a laugh when he sees her take out a pair of chopsticks.

"Channeling your inner Claire Standish, I see." He's grinning at her but all she responds back is a confused glare, ignoring him and stabbing the sushi with the chopstick instead of using proper chopstick technique. He sits there, genuinely shocked at her confusion, but then he remembers something:

She doesn't watch movies.

Right. He shouldn't really be surprised.

And suddenly, the greatest idea in the world seems to hit him and his grin grows larger than it was before, looking more and more like the Cheshire Cat, and she's slightly scared because if he continues to look at her like that, she might have to leave the premises.

"Beca Mitchell, we are going to watch The Breakfast Club." He says triumphantly, reaching into his backpack for his laptop and the DVD, which has been sitting in there since her first movication.

"And how exactly did you come up with this idea? I mean, you know I'm _all_ for your movies and all, but..."

"It's nutrition week, I thought it was fitting that we watch something relating to food..." He obviously knows the movie doesn't have anything to do with actual food, but hey, it was some sort of excuse.

She rolls her eyes and he pushes play. She's heard of the movie about a million times, but she never understood what it was about. Was it really about breakfast?

He hands her the right ear bud (it was an unspoken rule that it was hers) and the music starts rolling.

"This song launched Simple Minds in the U.S. It could've been a Billy Idol song but he turned it down. Idiot." And soon, he's rattling off different facts, distracting Beca from the movie itself. Chloe stayed the night before and she had to get up early and drive her to Aubrey's so they could go to the airport, and so it was no surprise that she was tired. And unfortunately, she finds herself dozing off somewhere in the middle of the movie. It's not until her head suddenly falls into the crook of her right shoulder when he notices this, and sighs, then freezes in his spot.

He's not sure whether he should wake her, or leave her, or find one of her friends, or something. Something tells him he shouldn't wake her up (he noticed that mornings aren't really her thing through personal experience at the beginning of health class) and suddenly he remembers her telling him that Stacie and Fat Amy had ditched her to go to out to eat. So he sighs again, reaches for his backpack, and stands up to set it on his seat. She's still sleeping upright in the library chair, so he awkwardly places a hand on her back and another on her arm and gently sets her head onto the backpack he's using as a makeshift pillow. She shuffles lightly once he removes his hand from her back, her hair hiding her closed eyes. He takes a seat next to her sleeping head and angles the laptop so that it faced him before continuing the movie, an ear bud still in Beca's ear. There's 15 minutes left of the movie when he hears footsteps coming from the floor below them and he makes an effort to look casual, even with a girl who was asleep next to him.

"Hey, Benji!" He greets once his full body comes to view. The boy looks at the sleeping Beca next to him, confused.

"Is she okay?" He asks, pointing to her.

He shrugs. "She fell asleep. I didn't know you had a free fifth?"

Benji shakes his head awkwardly. "Well, no. I have English Literature and I asked if I could go get a book from here. And uh, the sci-fi section is up here, so..." He's turning to leave when Jesse decides to open his mouth again.

"Oh dude, about Friday..." He smiles sheepishly, "I hope I didn't look creepy or anything. It's just that... those guys who were throwing things at you—"

"No, I get it. I wasn't kidding you know, my house was literally down the road." He laughs nervously as he fiddles his thumbs together.

"If you want, I could give you a ride after school. I mean, it's pouring out and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon."

Benji stares at him for a long time, a blank expression on his face. It's not until he sees the sleeping girl rustling when he seems to snap back to reality. Jesse jolts to the left, away from her, genuinely scared of what her reaction might be. Her eyes fly open and she sits up abruptly, eyeing the two boys in the room.

"Shit." She mutters, rubbing her eyes to get rid of her drowsiness. "I fell asleep. That's embarrassing." She groans as she combs through her hair with her fingers.

"Good morning, sunshine!" Jesse grins, but immediately frowns. "You fell asleep during your movication! During one of the best movies of all time! How dare you. Honestly, Beca, I can't believe you fell asleep during The Breakfast Club. You've done the impossible."

She snorts, swatting him on the chest. "Don't call me sunshine."

"We must reschedule." He pulls out his planner and whips out a pen, making Beca roll her eyes. He was such a weirdo.

"Hey, you're Benji, right?" Beca asks, finally acknowledging the boy standing awkwardly in front of them.

Benji smiles and nods. "And you're Beca?" She nods before replying, "I like your cape."

There's a new twinkle in his eyes and he's beaming at her. "Wanna see a magic trick?" He asks, genuinely happy that she commented positively on his attire. Most of the time, comments aimed at his cape were... Not nice.

Beca's nods, enjoying his enthusiasm. He brings out a deck of cards and takes out the queen of hearts, puts it to his ear, and tells Beca a few instructions and she willingly obliges.

"Is this your card?"

Beca bites her lip. "..No. Sorry, Benji."

His eyes widen. "What? Are you sure.. I thought.." He sighs sadly, reshuffling the deck before putting it back in its box.

"You'll get it next time." She says hopefully, smiling warmly at the boy. The whole time, Jesse is staring at them, not believing his eyes. She was not this nice when _he_ started talking to her. Instead of mentioning this, he clears his throat and smiles.

"So you up for that ride?" He asks again. "My car is parked in front of the field, just in case you can't find me after school."

Benji looks at him before nodding, a bit more confident. "Okay, sounds good. Thanks." His smile is genuine, and he's starting to turn away before he looks at the two once more. "I, uh, sorry if this is a little weird, but uh..." He snaps his mouth shut. "Nevermind. See you guys later!"

"Wait, Benji. What is it?" Jesse asks, wondering what the boy wanted to say but was too afraid to say it.

He laughs nervously. "Are you two.. uh.." Jesse and Beca exchange a look with each other, and Beca begins to laugh. Jesse, on the other hand, feels hot blood rush to his cheeks.

"No, we aren't." She snorts, making Jesse more than uncomfortable. The only person who could possibly look more embarrassed was Benji, who looked ready to run.

"Oh. Uh, sorry. See you guys around." He says before retreating back downstairs, forgetting his intention to get his science fiction book.

"That was awkward."

* * *

**A/N-**

Well, look at what we have here! Introduced some familiar and some unfamiliar characters to the story, stay tuned for more :D

This chapter turned out to be _way_ longer than I intended it to be. Whatever.

'No name please' I'm not really sure what you meant by posting an AU because it's in the summary but I kinda assumed you meant like a thing that showed my progress with each chapter? So I added something to my profile that does just that (pretty much the same thing theasbofive does with Caffeine Boost). Check in every once in a while, I guess.

Feedback received is highly appreciated! Glad to know you're all liking the story so far :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect, or any of the movies mentioned (Sixteen Candles, 1984. The Breakfast Club, 1985. Weird Science, 1985)**

* * *

Somehow, Beca makes it through a month in health class with Jesse by her side. Benji's been paired up with Beca for a project about self esteem (their unit for the next few weeks) and the guy wiggles his way into Jesse and Beca's lunch routine. The two work on their project, while Jesse keeps conversation flowing. It's not until Benji begins to mention his "little" (his words) crush on Jessica, who sat next to him in health class, when Jesse actually stops talking and lets the boy ramble on about his feelings for the girl. On one occasion, he asks Beca for a very surprising favor.

"Beca, can you give me... Advice?" Benji asks, looking sincere and positively adorable in his sweater vest combo. She cocks an eyebrow and sticks a magazine cutout to their poster board. Jesse's missing from their lunch group. He's out of the school, per Beca's request to buy some more teen magazines for their project.

"Depends what kind of advice."

Benji fumbles with his fingers, looking at Beca nervously. "I, um, it's about Jessica."

She sets down her pair of scissors and looks straight at him. "Um, look Benji, I'm not really all that good with love advice. Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're my only, well, friend that's a girl." He says shyly, a faint blush on his round cheeks. She can't help but feel reeled into the sympathy she feels for him and sighs. "Okay, well what do you need help with?" She gives him a small smile, hoping it looked encouraging. She really didn't do the whole advice thing.

"Valentines Day is coming up, and I really wanna take her out on a date. She's so nice, and pretty, and we get along so great... I just, I've don't really know how to ask a girl out, and I've never gone out on a date with a girl, either." He sighs, "I mean, I've asked this one girl out before, to prom. But she kinda laughed in my face." Beca takes a look at Benji's dejected expression and bites her lip. He's truly got Beca cornered, a place where she does not like to be.

"Oh, Benji. Sorry to hear about that." She frowns before speaking again, "Jessica likes your magic tricks, right?"

He nods.

"Maybe you can ask her through that? I really don't know, Benji. I'm not good at this stuff." She cringes, remembering her own past relationship problems.

"No, that sounds great! And I have the perfect card trick to do use. Thanks, Beca!" He grins as she lets out a sigh of relief.

* * *

And by that Friday, he does just that during health class. But when he's approaching Jesse, who was sitting in his car waiting for him, after school a week after he asked the peppy blonde out, he's wearing a mortified expression on his face. Valentines Day was tomorrow, a Tuesday, and fortunately, parent-teacher conferences started Wednesday, giving them no limits on time.

"You okay there, dude?" Jesse asks, watching as Benji shuts the car door.

"Jesse, I can't do this. I've never gone out with a girl before, what do I do? How do I do it?" He starts panicking, bewildering Jesse frozen in his seat.

"Relax! You'll be fine, she already likes you, you already get along with her great. All you have to do is to have fun." He reassured the nervous boy, not quite sure what else to say. Benji looks helplessly at Jesse, who's focus was now on the road ahead of him. He suddenly keeps still, his mouth not running and they sit in an uncomfortable silence.

"Benji..? Whats up?" Jesse starts, overwhelmed by the fact that his friend wasn't speaking at all.

"Are you gonna do anything for Beca tomorrow?"

The question takes him by surprise. Jesse's certainly thought about maybe doing... something for the girl. And he's obviously not afraid to flirt with her, despite her not reciprocating those same feelings for him whatsoever. Sure, he may or may not have a tiny (massive) crush on Beca, but he's not dumb. They've only _really_ known each other for a month, after all. Something's telling him that crossing that line with her would be a mistake. It's not like she's shown any actual feelings for him, anyways. He's not sure whether breaking a friendship with her is really worth it, because it isn't. Also, he's got a feeling Beca doesn't 'do' Valentines Day.

Benji seems to have noticed his friends' silence for a while now, and it dawns on him that he may have not... phrased that correctly. "Oh, god. I didn't mean for her, I— I was just wondering if you had any plans tomorrow... I wasn't supposed to say, 'for Beca' out loud." He openly admits, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well, I guess. It's Tuesday, and fifth comes after lunch so I'll probably just make her watch a movie, if that's what you mean."

"Oh, uh, well not really... I was just, I was thinking... Maybe you could, like, come with us? As in, me and Jessica?" Jesse slows to a stop in front of a red light, taking the opportunity to just stare at the boy, completely taken off-guard.

"Dude? Honestly, I think you should just take Jessica out alone, y'know?"

"No, I mean not— not as a double date. I don't know, I just don't wanna be alone? I was thinking... If you go, with Beca of course, and things get weird or awkward between me and Jessica, you'd be there to make them... not awkward?" Benji replies, completely embarrassed to be even asking for his friend to do that.

"Oh, well, I guess I don't mind. You might wanna check in with Beca, though. She's a stubborn one." He laughs a little, maybe a little too nervously, enough for Benji to notice.

"Look, Jesse, you don't have to do it if you don't want to. I get that it might be awkward and all..."

"No, it's fine. It'll be a casual thing, I mean it's at a laser tag place where they sell, like pizzas and burgers and stuff." He says simply, hoping his nerves aren't showing . Benji shrugs, and nods his head a little. "Like I said, you should probably check this in with Beca first."

Benji's front driveway comes into view, and the boy begins to prepare to leave when suddenly Jesse asks an unexpected question that's been bugging him ever since he brought up Beca.

"Is it really that obvious?"

Benji's face pales and Jesse takes that as a definite 'yes'.

"I— ah, nevermind. I'll see you tomorrow, Benji!" Jesse waves goodbye to the other boy and once he's out of sight, he takes a deep sigh. He's been tiptoeing around his feelings for Beca for the sake of their friendship, despite not being afraid to flirt with her. This crush he has on her is definitely no secret, but he didn't think it'd be... _that_ obvious.

Then again, he's made no effort to hide it. And if he's going to admit it, he's kind of.. excited for tomorrow. If she agrees to go (since it seems that she surprisingly cannot say no to Benji), he may be getting somewhere with the mysterious girl. It's been a month, and he doesn't know that much about her other than the basic facts. He's noticed that she's built these tall walls, and he knows that it'll be awhile until he can completely take them down. If all goes well tomorrow, the walls might be taken down, even just a little. Tomorrow.. It should be a good day.

Hopefully.

* * *

Valentines Day: Beca's least favorite holiday. It's not that she's sad over the fact that she's single (like most girls complain about on this day), and it's not that she's pissed off at the major excuse for PDA in the halls (because, well, she is), but it's just a sad reminder of how her own parents used to spend the holiday. When Beca was younger, holidays seemed to be the only days where her parents weren't arguing, whether it was over something big or small. Her dad would bring her a rose and a mini box of chocolates, and a bouquet of roses and a bigger box of chocolates for her mother, and her mom would dress up in cheesy hearts and make heart-shaped strawberry pancakes for breakfast. They would go out on a romantic date and pay a babysitter (Chloe, even if she was only two years older, filled the position once Beca turned eight. She never really seemed like a babysitter, though, which she was thankful for. They'd order a pizza and watch TV all night, more like best friends than a kid-and-her-babysitter), and when they got home, Beca would find herself being tucked in by both of her parents (which rarely happened), and she'd smile because for once, her mom and dad weren't fighting. It's not until she started growing older and staying up later when she noticed that they'd start arguing once her door was shut.

The holidays' image was shattered now, in her eyes, anyways.

When Benji so kindly explains his situation to Beca during health class that morning, she can't help but get roped into going. It's like she can't say no to the boy, which both irritates and surprises herself. She feels a little weird having to go with Jesse, but she knows he wouldn't try anything. I mean, they were just friends going out to help their other friend out with a date. Plus, this was an opportunity to kick Jesse's ass at laser tag.

It didn't matter that it was Valentines Day, anyway.

Jesse arrives late, this time he gets marked tardy, and he excitedly tells Beca which movie they're gonna watch at lunch ("Sixteen Candles? Isn't that like a... girl movie?" Beca asks, laughing a little at the blush on Jesse's cheeks. "No! It's a classic. You'll love it." He says, defending himself. She shakes her head, rolling her eyes. "That's what you always say, nerd." "And it's true, and you know it." "You don't know that."), and he gives her a box of candy hearts ("God, you're _such_ a nerd." "You're welcome.") as a Valentines Day gift.

She decides to see what Stacie and Fat Amy are up to before meeting up with Jesse in the library. They're at their usual table, where Fat Amy was puckering her lips in front of a mirror and Stacie was pushing her boobs up over her shirt.

"Flatbutt! You've come to see us!" Fat Amy says happily. "You wanna join me and Stace? We're going to the gym near BU..." Stacie winks as Fat Amy continues to talk about snagging some hot boomers, or dingoes, or something. Beca opens her mouth to decline, when Stacie beats her to it.

"I don't think she'll be able to go, Amy. I bet you," She pokes the blonde with her nail file, "that she," she tilts her head up to Beca's curious face, "has plans. With Jesse." She smiles victoriously once she sees Beca's facial expression. "You know, you two spend a lot of time together... How is he?" She winks again, causing Beca to cringe.

"He's just making me watch another one of his stupid movie education things. It's nothing."

"It's okay, Beca. You don't have to tell me. You'll come around, or I'll get it out of you eventually." She smiles mischievously, making Beca roll her eyes.

"Seriously? We're just friends."

"Jesse's cracked a fat one for ya, Beca!" Fat Amy joins in, only earning a confused glare from the brunette.

"I don't know what that means, and I don't want to know, either. I'm gonna get going. Good luck out there ladies." She clicks her tongue to the roof of her mouth and winks at her two friends before heading off to the top floor of the library, where Jesse was already patiently waiting with his laptop ready at their table. He pats the seat next to him (it's not like he needed to) and he hands her an ear bud, all prepared for the movie.

"Did you know that Molly Ringwald almost lost the part to Ally Sheedy, who plays Allison from The Breakfast Club, which I'm sure you remember." He nods curtly, rolling his eyes at the memory of her falling asleep during one of the greatest movies of all time.

Beca blinks with an otherwise blank expression on her face. "That is fascinating. Tell me more."

"Okay! Ringwald was originally going to play Allison in TBC—"

"TBC?"

"The Breakfast Club. Man, Beca. I thought you'd know this by now. Have I taught you anything?"

She shakes her head innocently and laughs as Jesse buries his head into the table. "Well, go on, nerd."

He lifts his head and smiles. "Yeah, so Ringwald really wanted to be Claire and Hughes let her. Oh, and John Kapelos, the janitor, and Anthony Michael Hall, who was Brian, are the only actors to appear in all three of Hughes' teen movies. We're gonna have to watch Weird Science next." He notes to himself, quickly taking out a piece of paper and scrawling the title on it before stuffing it back into his bag. "Which reminds me, we have to watch TBC again, without you falling asleep."

He wasn't going to let her live this down, was he?

"I'm serious, Beca. Then, I can die a hero. But for now, we're watching this." He taps the play button and Beca finds herself actually paying attention to the movie, this time not falling asleep. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, she remembers Benji's little favor and curses inwardly to herself, thinking she should probably bring it up with the nerd.

"So, how's it going to work?" She asks, disturbing Jesse's concentration on the scene.

"Huh?"

"Tonight."

He pauses the movie and his mouth twists into a weird shape, crinkling his eyebrows together. "Oh, that. I could pick you up? He said six, right?"

She nods.

"Yeah so want me to pick you up?" He asks, not looking at her in the eyes.

She shrugs. "Sure, I guess." She gives him her address and looks at him, his eyes still not meeting hers. She swallows a lump down her throat to clear some tension in the air. "I hope you like to lose, Swanson."

This time, he looks at her straight in the eyes, relieving Beca. "What?! I'll have you know that I am a laser tag connoisseur. You are going _down_." He grins, only earning a punch in the shoulder. "Ow! Are you intimidated, Beca Mitchell?" He wiggles his eyebrows, making her laugh.

"You keep thinking that, nerd."

* * *

Surprisingly, her mother is home after a couple days of traveling, and Beca's greeted by a strong scent of strawberry pancakes on the griddle when she arrives. She tries to escape to her room as fast as possible, but her mom pokes her head out of the kitchen and gives her a wide grin.

"Hey, mom." She sighs, hoping for a quick exchange.

"What's up, love? I'm making pancakes!" Her mom exclaims a little too enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I can smell them." She gives her a tight lipped smile before continuing, "You're home early."

"Well, there's a big storm in Japan right now, so my flights were cancelled. I was in New York and I thought I'd come home instead of staying at a hotel for a few hours. So, do you have any plans for tonight?" She asks her daughter, but doesn't give her much time to answer. "Because I was thinking... Maybe we can go out to dinner and go shopping or something, have a little mother-daughter bonding time. Who needs men, anyway?" She snorts, continuing to flip the pancakes with her spatula. Beca bites her tongue as she quietly grabs a plate and throws a pancake onto it. She sits at the table, cutting the breakfast food into pieces and not talking.

"Becs?"A flash of realization crosses her mother's face, and soon she's frowning. "You have plans, don't you?"

"I sort of... do." Beca shrugs and bites into the cake. "Sorry."

"Oh no... It's fine." She sees the hurt on her mom's face, which turns her stomach into knots. As much as her mom annoyed her, she didn't like disappointing her. "So, where and with who? Amy, Stacie, Chloe?" Her mother asks, taking a seat across from her.

"A group of friends and I are going out to eat dinner in Boston." She lies, blatantly ignoring her mother's curious gaze. If she mentioned Jesse, her mother was going to continuously bother her about it, and she truly didn't need that right now. Her mother's sworn off relationships and men, and she's been trying to rub her beliefs on them onto Beca, and unfortunately, some of it worked. Her mom only seems to do one night stands, and Beca's last relationship ended badly, making the two women unwillingly uneasy about starting a new one. Her and her mother, however, struggled with the same trust and abandonment issues that was left from the divorce.

Beca finishes the last of her pancake before dropping her plate into the sink and retreating to her room, quickly changing into a different top (she wasn't sure whether she should change her whole outfit or not, but finally settled on just changing into a comfier top) and went straight to work on her mixes, hoping to drown out the world (until 6 PM).

* * *

Jesse's parked in Beca's driveway, texting her to let her know that he was there. He's both nervous and excited, even if this wasn't a real 'date'. It would be the first time he and Beca have spent together, excluding the grocery store run-in, out of school. He's trying hard not to think too much about what's about to happen when he sees a light go off in the window on the second floor, where a giant oak tree was planted in front of it. The front door of the house flies open and out comes Beca, clad in jeans, a leather jacket, a t-shirt, and combat boots. Another female's head pops out of the doorway, waving goodbye to the brunette. Soon, she reaches his car and sits in the passenger seat.

"Hey weirdo!" He cheerfully greets the small girl and holds up a bag of quarters, showing it to her.

"Oh my god, you are an actual man-child." She snorts, buckling her seat belt as he backs out of the driveway.

He shrugs, then pushes his shoulders out and puffs his chest. "Are you ready to lose, Beca Mitchell?" He challenges, taking a sideways glance to see Beca's facial expression. She's biting the inside of her cheek, trying not to smile. He really had no idea what was about to come when it came to Beca and laser tag. She shakes her head, successfully fighting the laughter that threatened to pour out of her mouth.

When they arrive at the restaurant, an lonely little pizza parlor surrounded by an unhealthy amount of arcade games and, of course, laser tag, the two find Benji and Jessica already seated in a booth in the middle of the place. Benji immediately sees them and waves them over once they're finished ordering their food, a relieved smile on his face.

"Jesse, Beca! I didn't know you'd be here." He laughs nervously, and Beca can't help but smile a little.

"Hey, guys." Beca greets her magician friend and Jessica, who was grinning happily at Benji.

"Well, you recommended this place and we thought we'd give it a shot." Jesse says.

Jessica opens her mouth to speak. "I didn't know you two were together!" She chirps, causing Beca to freeze under Jesse's embarrassed stare. She's not sure why she didn't have the same reaction when Benji asked the same thing only a couple weeks ago. Maybe it varied with the person?

"Oh, we aren't..." He begins, but he doesn't need to finish the sentence before Benji comes to the rescue.

"Jess, they're just friends." Benji says to the girl in the blonde ponytail, who was now showing a bit of blush on her neck. "Oops, sorry... I just assumed, you know, since it's Valentines Day..."

"No, it makes sense. But, yeah, we're just friends." Beca finally says, feeling herself relax.

"_Best_ friends." Jesse corrects, only earning a smack on the chest with the back of Beca's hand.

"Yeah, no. We're just gonna sit over there." She nods her head over to the direction of their booth, "we can hang out after dinner, if you want?" She offers. The two lovebirds nod and Jesse and Beca go sit at their table, waiting for the pizza (that she let him choose, because, he says in his words, "I am the greatest at picking out pizza, you already know that.") they had previously ordered at the counter.

She takes a gulp of her soda, nonchalantly playing with the utensils in front of her. "Look at them. They don't even need us, they seem perfectly fine with each other. I don't even know why Benji needed us."

"Moral support." He shrugs. "Was that your mom earlier? The one waving at you?" He asks, hoping it was a good enough conversation starter.

Beca nods.

"She's a flight attendant, right?" She's honestly caught by surprise at the fact that he remembered when she's only mentioned it once. "Does she, like get you cool key chains from all the places she's been to? Or even better, those 'somebody who loves me got me this shirt' shirts?"

"Why, do you want one?" She asks with a playful glint in her eyes.

"Yes! We can totally get matching ones." He exclaims, grinning widely.

"Totally." She's laughing at his childlike demeanor when their pizza comes and they spend a few minutes chewing in silence. Jesse's finishing the last of his current pizza crust when he finally talks again.

"You know, I've never been on a plane."

Her eyes widen at his confession, because, well, Jesse didn't seem like that kind of person. She sees him as being in one of those families who are all neatly stacked in line, only packing light and eventually coming home with a huge haul of typical souvenirs they bought at tourist traps. "Really?"

His head bobs up and down. "My mom's got a horrible phobia of flying. We travel by car or boat whenever we have Swanson family vacations, though."

Oh. So he could still be in one of those families... Except they'd run into tourist traps along the road.

"Yeah, well, there's nothing fun about flying. There's that constant fear that the metal detector will go off when you walk through, and having to be felt up and all over your body. There's the rude airport workers, that one family who blocks the line in the plane when they're trying to get their bags up in the storage compartment, and that annoying person who sits next to you that just _loves_ to talk the entire flight. And of course, there's the jet lag and stale air recycling through the plane. Trust me, you aren't missing anything." She sighs, wondering how on Earth her mother could survive that job.

"Ouch, sounds rough." Is all he says before he looks back to check on Benji and Jessica, who were seemingly in their own world. "I'm glad we became friends with the guy. Every time I'd see him in the halls, he was always being made fun of for doing his tricks. He's really a great friend."

"Sounds like someone has a crush. Are you jealous of Jessica?" She teases and he rolls his eyes. "You're right, though. I'm happy he's finally got people to watch his tricks and not ruin them. What about you?"

"What?"

"Your friends."

"Oh." He pauses and strokes his chin while simultaneously eating his third slice of pizza. "You mean I'm allowed to have other friends besides you, my very best friend?"

She reaches over to punch him in the shoulder, "You know, you're awfully clingy." He dodges it and raises his arms up in defense. "I know you hang out with that one guy with the unicycle... and that other guy, who wears hats all the time."

"Ah yes, Unicycle and Hat."

She nearly chokes on her pizza. "That's seriously their names?" He laughs in response, this time unable to dodge Beca's throw at him with her pizza crust.

"Okay, well yeah, there's them. There's Greg and Kolio, and Bumper and Donald, who go to Barden University, now. What about you?"

"You know Stacie and Amy, and there's Aubrey and Chloe, who I'm sure you remember from earlier in high school. They go to Barden, too. And yeah, that's pretty much it." She says, feeling awkward telling her these little details about herself. She glances back at Benji and Jessica, who were now heading to the various games around the restaurant. Jesse waits for Beca to finish up before they head towards the games. He's jiggling his bag of quarters happily in his hand, and going for the whack-a-mole machine without asking if she wanted to play.

"Are you actually serious?"

He hands her a mallet and inserts a coin in the slot, grabbing his own and the two go at the machine, Jesse more enthusiastically than Beca. The two make their way around the games.

Pinball:

"Wow Jesse, you made us lose." Beca groans as they leave the pinball machine, "And you didn't have to slap my hand every five seconds, I knew what I was doing!" She rubs her red right hand, glaring at him.

"Sorry, I'm used to playing pinball with two hands." He apologizes, returning the glare.

"I'm not the one who insisted on sharing a machine." She snorts, wincing at the sting he left every time he tried to take over the right side of the machine for her.

"I might run out of quarters!"

Racecar Driving Game:

"Loosen up, Beca!"

"Shut up Jesse, I'm trying to beat you."

"You could totally get arrested for road rage."

She gives him the finger, which only makes him laugh.

She wins.

Then he wins Pacman.

She wins the Terminator game.

He wins the jet-ski game.

And then they're tied in their own competitive game.

They're in the midst of deciding which game to play next when Beca feels a light tap on her shoulder. She turns around, startled to see Benji and Jessica. "Oh, hey guys." She says coolly, smiling through gritted teeth. They have seemed to completely forget about the reason why they were there in the first place, slightly embarrassing Beca. She looks down and sees Benji and Jessica's hands clasped together, and immediately she forgets the embarrassment and smiles.

"Hi guys! We were wondering if you wanted to come play laser tag with us?" Benji asks, his face bright. Beca turns to Jesse and gives him a smirk, which scares him a little. "Sure, sounds great."

"Awesome! Whenever you're ready, we'll be getting ready over there." Jessica points to the laser tag station that led to the arena, and the two leave.

"Okay, nerd. Since we're tied... Whoever wins—"

Jesse stops her mid-sentence. "Woah there, if _I_ win and when _I_ win," He points to himself, then suddenly his face blanks out. "Actually, ladies first. You decide." He offers, bowing to the small brunette.

She smirks. "If I win... You can be my slave for a week. You have to do whatever I want and get whatever I want. This includes no movications."

He cocks an eyebrow and digs his hands deep into his pockets. "That's all? Okay, fine. If I win... You get to be my partner for the baby project."

...Valentines Day suddenly was suddenly _a lot_ more interesting this year.

* * *

**A/N-**

Sorry for the delay, I've been busy with AK47 birthday project stuff on tumblr. This chapter ended up extremely long, so hopefully it keeps you content for another week!

Angie515- Hopefully, the whole Chloe knowing Jesse thing is cleared up in this chapter.

Okay, well once again I put one of those update-y things on my profile, if you're ever wondering how the next chapter is coming along. In the next chapter comes the reveal of the winner and the start of the baby project! Meaning, **I need some baby name suggestions**! Boys and girls names. And we're ruling out Molly... Because of reasons you'll learn in the next chapter :)

Feedback (and of course names) is much appreciated!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect.**

* * *

He was waiting on one knee with one hand firmly clenched deep in his pants pocket. On the outside he wore a happy grin, but in the inside he was freaking out.

* * *

Beca arrives to a classroom decorated with different types of birth control on each desk. She cocks an eyebrow, then looks at the whiteboard.

"BIRTH CONTROL: THE DIFFERENT TYPES AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T USE IT" is scrawled in big black letters on the board. She takes a seat and looks at the one in front of her, remembering her mother's speeches about every possible method of birth control there was. She immediately recognizes it and cringes inwardly, because, well, who the hell would want to use _that_?

She doesn't notice when Jesse slides into the seat next to her, immediately taking sight of the item and grabbing it.

"Ooh, what is this? Is it one of those toy poppers?" He begins to fiddle with it, completely unaware of what it was.

She tries to keep a straight face as she begins to explain what the true intentions of the item were. "Jesse..." She looks him dead in the eye, biting hard at her cheek to keep from laughing. "That's..." The laughs get hold of her when he starts pushes inward at the dome and sets it on the desk, ready for it to pop.

"What?"

"That's a diaphragm, you idiot."

"A what?"

"It's a form of birth control." His eyes flicker from the item in front of him to her face, his lips shaped as a perfect 'O'.

"Oh. But how..." All color drains off his face, only making Beca laugh harder. "You can figure that out for yourself, buddy." She pats him on the back, shaking her head at his oblivious-mess.

He maintains his cool, however, slumping over the table. "How was I supposed to know? There are kids toys marketed that look like these!"

"Why would a kids toy be on our desks?"

"Because it's a present from you, since you know, it's my birthday."

She searches his eyes for any flicker of movement, however she fails to spot any and sighs. "Is it really?" She continues to stare at him as he returns his gaze, a smug smirk plastered on his face.

"No."

She rolls her eyes, knowing well that had it been his birthday, he would've talked nonstop about it at least two weeks prior. Benji walks in and sits at the front row, staring at the choice birth control item in front of him. He picks it up and squeezes the large, clear ring, clearly just as confused as Jesse was at the item.

After an hour minutes of a lecture on birth control and a slideshow of various STDs, Jesse and Benji seem both frightened and intrigued, only making Beca laugh. Mrs. Keener tells them that they'll be starting sex education the next time they're in class, and that the fake babies will come the following week. Beca's been avoiding the subject all week, and once the teacher brings it up, Jesse begins bragging about his 'epic win' from Valentines Day.

It's officially March, and Beca was still grumpy over the fact that Jesse's bet trumped her own, and especially since he actually won. Jesse wasn't so great and she would've totally beat him had it just been them, without their respective tag teams (Jessica with her, Benji with him). Unfortunately, had she known Benji was _incredibly_ good at laser tag... She wouldn't have made the bet anyways. But a bet was a bet, and she never backed down from one.

It's a weird deal for him to have made, though, since she figured they'd be partners anyways. There was always a possibility that she could've paired up with Benji, but now that he had Jessica, there was really no choice but to be with the nerd who organized her movications. Except now, he had bragging rights, which sucks for Beca.

* * *

Jesse and Benji are walking to psychology, chatting about the baby project and how, now that he and Jessica were officially 'together', asking her to be Benji's partner wouldn't be as much of a nerve wracking experience he thought he'd have.

"Well, that's good for you, Benji. Beca's still a little bitter about our win at the laser tag place the other week." He high fives Benji as they enter the classroom. They're the first ones there, other than Stacie, who was, yet again, painting her nails a few desks away.

"She'll warm up to the idea eventually."

"I hope so, she's not the forgiving type."

Benji nods in agreement as they take their seats.

"Who's not the forgiving type? Beca?" Stacie suddenly asks from her side of the room, unashamedly eavesdropping on the two boys. She perches her chin on her hand, propped up on her elbow on the desk. Benji nods, dismissing Jesse's warning look.

"How'd you know?" Benji pipes.

"Lucky guess." She shrugs innocently, winking at Jesse. "What'd you do, Swanson? Propose? She hates commitment."

"What? No!" He shakes his head looking at the brunette in astonishment. What on Earth made her think of _that_?

"Oh, well if you wanna win her over, give her roses and make her chocolate cookies. She says she hates all that romantic stuff but she's totally, secretly into it. All girls are."

"I'm not trying to... What?" He shakes his head again, suddenly noticing the growing amount of students entering the room. Stacie bats her eyelashes and turns away. Jesse looks at Benji, who shrugs in reply.

He's thinking about what Stacie said and what could possibly have made her said it when, suddenly, a brilliant idea pops into his head. Beca was probably going to hold a grudge against his win for a very long time, the least he could do is make her feel thankful that he _did_ win.

* * *

**ONE WEEK LATER**

If he was going to be her partner, he might as well properly ask her.

He's been planning this day for a while now, only letting Benji know. Jesse asks Benji to distract Beca while he sets up in the lonely top floor of the library, sprinkling rose petals on the ground that led to their little corner, carefully and just enough for the librarian not to notice the scent. He lights up a few fake electronic scented candles (because real ones would set off the fire alarms) and a trail of juice pouches that led to him. He had a basket of triple chocolate cookies and red velvet cupcakes (which he discovered was her favorite after she wouldn't stop staring at his that his mother packed him for lunch and so he offered her the treat, which she devoured in less than two minutes) in hopes that it would help stop her from killing him afterwards.

Even if he hadn't won the bet, he still wanted to do this. To him, it was one of the most genius idea he's ever came up with, even if their partnership for the baby project was a done deal. He was perfectly aware of how over the top he was going with this. He knew how unbelievably cheesy and nerdy it was. But since he won, he might as well milk the whole thing.

He was nervous and excited, but mostly he hoped that no one walked in on him while he was executing his little plan.

Beca finds herself being dragged around the school by Benji, who was claiming to be trying to find Jessica.

"Can't you call her?"

He shakes his head violently, and she swears she sees his eye twitch. "She forgot her phone at home! I really need to find her, we have a project due next period!"

She gives him a confused look because she knows that the two don't share fifth period together. "Uh, Benji? I thought she had drama after lunch."

"I meant for sixth period. Yeah." She sees his adams apple bob and his twitches become more obvious. He seems to get more finicky as he peeks into each classroom, seemingly checking slower each time.

"You know, you're an awful liar. What's going on?" She was getting a bit impatient now. All she wanted to do was eat her damn lunch and hurry up and finish that English paper on time.

"Nothing!"

"I'm pretty sure we've been around the whole school, Benji. I'm gonna head to the library and eat my lunch. Are you coming?" She asks the bundle of nerves. He checks his watch and lets out a relieved sigh, the tension in his shoulders visibly releasing. "Oh you can go now— I mean, no, I'm just gonna keep finding Jessica. Bye!" Suddenly, he scurries out of her sight, his behavior only confusing Beca more. She shakes it off and enters the library, finding a trail of juice pouches going up the stairs. She blinks, swipes one up and pokes the straw in the hole before following the trail and seeing scattered rose petals decorating the ground. She lifts her gaze up to the sudden halt that was a big brown shoe, and there, on one knee, was Jesse, with a smug (if slightly nervous) grin on that stupid face of his.

"What the fuck—"

"Beca Mitchell, I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I'll have you know that you have become the very reason why I smile every morning because I know that I get to see your lovely, beaming face."

She's still utterly confused and has the urge to run out, but she manages to put on a somewhat sarcastic (if slightly weaker than her usual) smirk. He shakily pulls out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, offering it to her. She takes it, hastily opening the paper to find that it's the very same one they received early that week informing them about the baby project. Her head cocks to one side and he points to the line at the bottom that said 'partner name'.

"You are obviously the most loving, warm-hearted human being on this planet, and my only wish is for you to care for my offspring with me. Will you, Rebeca Anne Mitchell, be my..."

She gulps, clearly unamused with the situation. Not only was he rubbing his win in her face, but he was doing it so cheesy that it was making her gag a bit. He get's an 'A' for effort, though.

"Be my baby mama?"

She's fighting to keep the smile off her face when he says that, hoping her expression showed how unimpressed she was.

"Jesse Swanson, you may be the biggest dumbass on this _entire_ planet."

He shrugs smugly, and pulls out the basket of goodies he had to offer. "I bear gifts?"

She can't help but laugh now, looking at his now anxious face. "I guess you aren't the dumbest person on Earth, then." She takes the basket and pulls out a cookie, happily munching away at the chocolate-y bits of heaven.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Be my baby mama!"

"You already won the bet, remember? Why did you do this, anyways? Also, how do you know my middle name?"

"I didn't, I guessed." He's grinning now, obviously proud of himself.

"Well you guessed wrong. It's Rebeca Marie Mitchell. If you're gonna ask me to be your baby mama, you should at least get my name right."

She hears him mutter a 'dammit' and smirks, relishing in his embarrassment.

"To answer your other question... I don't know. I wanted to start out our new life as parents the right way." He says dramatically, brushing off his brief moment of humiliation quickly.

She rolls her eyes and shoves him out of the way to get to set down her stuff, then turns back to him, who's sweeping up the petals off the ground with his hands. "You really are an idiot, you know." She signs the paper and gives it to him once he's done, then takes out her own so he can do the same.

"We're going to have awesome children."

"One child, for one week."

* * *

The next week they take their seats, a seemingly normal routine except for the noticeable awkward tension in the air. The group of freshmen in the desks in front of theirs are quietly talking about who's going to get the twin fake babies, others in the room are blatantly complaining about the project altogether. Jesse's in the seat next to hers, his hands clasped tightly together underneath the desk.

"Are you ready for the best week of your life, Beca?"

"Ready than I'll ever be."

And she truly meant that.

But, only because he's been pretending she was _actually_ pregnant for the past week. And she uncharacteristically went along with it, only because she had the opportunity to get him to do stuff for her. She got him to make her more of those delicious cupcakes, claiming it was 'pregnancy cravings' after he complained that he didn't have enough ingredients, and that his cupcakes could never beat his moms. It was over the phone, because they weren't at school and she was actually craving the things since she was on her lovely motherly gift (she needed some good food to feed her rampant, non-existent fetus in her uterus), and if she was going to go along with the whole thing, she might as well put her advantage over him to good use.

_"It's for the baby, Jesse." She pretend whines over the phone, hearing Jesse groan at the other end._

_"You're pushing it, Bec."_

_"Think about our child. The fetus needs food."_

_"The fetus needs food with nutritional value. Red velvet cupcakes do not have nutritional value."_

_When he hears no reply, he starts freaking out because, man, she was scary when she was mad._

_"...Just kidding. Two dozen red velvet cupcakes will be delivered to your door in an hour or two, Ms. Mitchell."_

_"Very good."_

There was that one day where she came up with the brilliant idea to have him massage her feet, since she claimed that they were 'swollen'. However, he was actually sweet about it after his initial first reaction (a grimace and a groan). He once noticed her almost fall asleep (yet again) during her movication, and suggested that she take a nap while he finished his homework. He offered her his backpack and she gave him a small smile as she curled up in a tight ball and napped for the next two hours in their dark little corner of the library, thoroughly grateful for Jesse's kindness. Had this taken place only two weeks ago, she would've refused because of how awkward it seemed. Their friendship seemed to really take a different turn in the last two weeks, both a frightening and comforting thought to Beca. It was crazy how they've seemed to gotten closer in their friendship, and it scared her. They've established this trust that she only found scary. Because commitment was a scary thing, especially for Beca.

Beca doesn't notice that Mrs. Keener's been talking about the project for quite sometime now until she sets down three ID bracelets, a diaper with a sensor on it, a baby bottle, and the fake baby in front of them. She stares at it's tan skin and glossy green eyes, inwardly laughing at its appearance.

"This is not our child." Jesse blinks, poking at its side. "It should have blue eyes, like its mothers. And what's with this tan, it should be pale! Its mother has the palest skin of all."

She elbows him in the side and rolls her eyes. "Don't talk about my pale skin. And 'it' is obviously a 'she'."

"Well, _she_ should have her mother's beautiful blue eyes." He looks flustered once he realizes that he said beautiful instead of leaving it in his head.

She feels her ears redden at his words, and a warm flush creep onto her cheeks.

_What the hell, was she blushing?_ Beca Mitchell does not blush.

"So, what are we naming her?"

"I don't know. You decide, since you're obviously way more into this role play thing than I am."

"Not role play. This is for an actual grade." He explains, receiving absolutely no expression from Beca. "Okay, well we can name her... Molly! Like Molly Ringwald."

"No, like ecstasy. We're not naming her Molly." She picks up the fake baby, taken aback at how heavy it was. "What the fuck, it actually weighs like an actual newborn. Eight pounds at least."

He pulls out his phone (because Mrs. Keener didn't really care and let the class loose to interact with the... things) and goes to a site with a random baby name generator.

"Hey! No cursing in front of the baby. We can name her Ellie. Do you like it, momm—"

"Don't say it." She warns, handing him the fake kid. "Yeah, sure. Ellie is fine."

"Aw, do you like your name, Ellie? You're a heavy one. Oh, shit." The doll starts crying out of nowhere, the first in the whole class to do so, causing the whole class to shut up and stare at them. Suddenly, another one goes off, and more and more begin to imitate the wails.

"MRS. KEENER HOW DO WE GET THEM TO SHUT UP?!" A kid in class shouts over the mass amount of cries in the room.

Mrs Keener asks for one of the wailing babies (ultimately, they pick one of Benji's) and demonstrates the different ways to calm the doll. She takes Benji's ID bracelet and puts it on, then holds her wrist to the baby's chest. It takes a few seconds before they hear a beep, which "identifies that you, the parent, has taken care of it", according to Mrs. Keener. The baby doesn't stop crying though, because apparently, now they have to figure out what's wrong with it. She takes a bottle and puts it to its mouth, and sixty seconds later the thing makes a 'burp' noise, which "indicates that the baby is done feeding. It takes a minimum of sixty seconds and can last up to half an hour for the baby to stop feeding."

She picks out Beca and Jesse's doll next. "See? Its cries are significantly louder, meaning it's a little more serious. This happens when you don't respond to the baby in less than two minutes. The baby can record that you, the student, missed caring for them. Don't want this happening." She takes the baby and sets it on a desk with a diaper with the sensor on it and changes the doll. The doll immediately stops crying and Mrs. Keener gives it back to Jesse and Beca.

"Finally, notice that babies need their heads to be supported... So, don't try this." She takes a quiet baby doll and holds it in her arms before briefly shaking the thing, snapping it's neck against her arm. The doll begins to violently cry, freaking Beca out. "The only way you can stop it from crying is to rock it gently, like this." She demonstrates to the class, and the doll stops crying after a minute.

"What happens if we leave them in a closet and just let them cry?"

"You'll get an F. Don't forget, the dolls have internal technology that records how long it takes you to tend to its needs. I'll know, so don't try anything!" She chirps over the cries in the room before returning to her task at her desk.

"This isn't so bad."

* * *

The librarian gives them three warnings before they're kicked out.

Jesse spent hell with Benji during psychology that day, both getting amused looks from the rest of the class whenever one of their baby's started crying. Mrs. Keener made each set of partners plan out a baby schedule so that each person had an equal amount of time with each parent. Jesse and Beca decided to alternate the baby with each class, meaning next period, Beca got the kid. Unfortunately, that meant he was getting it after school. The next day, she'd get it for second period like he did right now, and they would continue to switch for the next week. Unfortunately for Benji, he and Jessica got the set of twins, so their 'baby schedule' wasn't going to be put into use, afterall. When class finally finished, he went straight to the library, grateful that he got to get rid of the thing (well, share the thing with Beca for the next lunch and fifth periods)

Beca's already there, for once looking happier than Jesse. The kid starts crying again, making Jesse, groan.

"Your child."

She bites her lip and sighs, enjoying his misery. "You look like a mess, and it's only been one hour."

"She cried at least ten times during psychology."

The librarian comes up the stairs and gives them their first warning.

"Boo hoo, you poor thing. You're probably exaggerating." She pouts, patting him on his back before taking the doll and putting her bracelet to the chest. She takes out the bottle and 'feeds it'. It only takes a minute for it to stop, satisfying Beca. The librarian comes up the stairs and gives them their first warning.

"Maybe Ellie just doesn't like her father." She shrugs, holding the fake baby in the crook of her arm before taking out her math homework. She doesn't get very far when the thing starts crying again. The librarian comes up and gives them their second warning, making Beca roll her eyes.

"At least we aren't Benji and Jessica. Sucks that they got the twins. No breaks." Jesse sighs and takes out his own work, enjoying the good twenty minutes of silence.

Ellie starts wailing again, which earns their third and final warning before they're kicked out. They're both distraught and don't know where to go since lunch just ended, and all classes were currently occupied with students.

"What do we do now?" Beca groans, carrying the doll with one hand and her bag in the other.

"We could go to my place." Jesse's hesitant to suggest it because he doesn't want to make the girl uncomfortable. Beca gives him a long look, unable to process her feelings towards this. "I mean, I'm pretty sure my sister's got old doll clothes somewhere in the attic. We could kill an hour at my place, my mom won't mind. Plus, we won't get any weird stares from anyone. It's not far from here." He waits for her to answer, hoping she'll come along. She gives him a slow nod, so he pulls out his car keys and they head out to his car.

* * *

Sorry for the long wait D: I started school a couple weeks ago, and I've been busy/mentally exhausted ever since. I was going to publish a chapter last weekend, but, again, school got in the way.

If anyone's confused, this chapter is over a course of three weeks. Next chapter will continue where we left off.

I picked the name using a random generator and Ellie was the first to come up! Thanks to BittyAB18 for the suggestion! And if anyone wants to see what the fake baby process thing is like, I found a video on youtube that shows that. Just type 'how to use a "fake baby"' into the search bar and it should be the first video on the list.

Let me know your thoughts on this chapter!


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